Technical Abstract:
There is a need to determine the life history of stink bugs relative to major crops in the southeastern US. To this end, we investigated Southern green stink bug egg mortality by placing sentinel egg masses in plots of soybean, Bt-cotton, Round up Ready (RR) cotton and peanut plants in the Southeast. Egg masses were photographed at placement and at 12h, 24h and 48h after placement to help evaluate relative predation and parasitism in the crops. After 72h, surviving egg masses were collected and held in the laboratory to assess parasitism. Predation of eggs was high in peanuts (74%) and soybeans (65%), and similarly lower in Bt (26%) and RR cotton (21%). Most egg predation in cotton and peanuts was attributable to fire ants. Parasitism was low overall but higher in the cotton (8%) than the peanuts (0.17%) and soybeans (2%). Both predation and parasitism were higher at plot edges than the centers of all three crops. Future studies will continue to investigate relative egg mortality as well as stink bug reproduction and longevity in the various crops used by these species.